ISNI FOR LIBRARIES

About ISNI

ISNI is an ISO certified global standard for identifying the millions of contributors to creative works and those active in their distribution, including writers, artists, creators, performers, researchers, producers, publishers, aggregators, and more. It is part of a family of international standard identifiers that includes identifiers of works, recordings, products and right holders in all repertoires, e.g. DOI, ISAN, ISBN, ISRC, ISSN, ISTC, and ISWC.

ISNI can be assigned to all individuals and organisations that create, perform, produce, manage, distribute or feature in creative content including natural, legal, or fictional identities.

Inter alia, ISNI is serving the following key purposes:

1. Act as a bridge-identifier across multiple domains

2. Facilitate reliable royalty management services across all repertoires and throughout the value chain.

3. Allow for more accurate, complete and efficient discovery services spanning all domains.

4. Provide an infrastructure for academics and researchers to establish their identity for the purpose of reputation management and communication of their output.

5. Provide an infrastructure for organization identification to smooth and improve the functioning of the information supply chain.

ISNI and Libraries

ISNI and Libraries

Library authority data are at the heart of ISNI with more than 14 million authority records from VIAF, the Virtual International Authority File created by OCLC Research from authority data harvested from 37 of the world’s major libraries. OCLC Research developed sophisticated metadata matching, specific for matching personal and organisation data as the basis of VIAF and it has been adapted by the ISNI-IA for the ISNI system. The close relationship of ISNI and VIAF is bringing significant benefits to both systems. The VIAF data is freely available for public viewing, and this enables Rights Management Societies, Publishers, Research organizations and others to participate in ISNI without breaking confidentiality agreements with rights holders by exposing their data. In return, ISNI is providing significant feedback to VIAF; provision of the ISNI identifiers themselves and all the additional links to ISNI’s sources and also data and algorithm improvements.

ISNI’s scope is different from that of VIAF; so far data from 23 other sources have been added to the database and many more sources are planned as an ongoing process. In addition to VIAF, the ISNI database also includes other important resources from libraries, such as the British Library that has contributed British Library Theses, British Library Sound Archive and Zetoc.

Unlike VIAF, a harvested database where the maintenance of the authority files is done in the contributing databases with monthly updates to the centralised database, ISNI’s database is centrally managed with online update and assignment of the identifiers. ISNIs are assigned and diffused where there is high confidence in the associated metadata, describing one identity only. ISNI has a strict requirement for accuracy. Some matches and records are flagged for manual review. These reviews are performed by the ISNI Quality Team, comprising the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the British Library. The Quality Team is an integral part of the system, sampling, correcting, diffusing corrections, reviewing system reports and providing feedback for improvements to matching and error detection algorithms. The data contributors themselves also contribute to the quality by reviewing records flagged by the system, either as possible matches below the confidence threshold or data anomalies detected by the system’s data mining programs. In addition, the general public is invited to submit corrections and enrichments via the web site.

Corrections made in ISNI are fed back to all sources, including VIAF.

ISNIs and New Links

The value of ISNI is being recognized in the Web environment as one of the key persistent identifiers facilitating the trusted and seamless linking of resources across domains. By August 2013, 7.8 million links had been made between VIAF sources and other ISNI sources. Among the links are 439,000 to records in text rights management societies, 594,000 links to databases of research and professional organisations, 329,000 links to databases rich in music and 6.4 million links to trade databases. This is just the beginning of extending library based linked data beyond its own environment where links are made between data that is essentially the same and sourced in a similar way. Links outside the immediate environment serve to authenticate the metadata and also to provide access to richer metadata. These new links also help extend the range of

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library authority data within library collections, beyond monographs to journal articles, web resources, and album contents, among others.

ISNI and links from libraries to the music industry

272,618 out of 760,138 records from 4 music based sources on the database, have assigned ISNIs, the majority coming from the International Performers Database Association (IPDA). The number of assigned ISNIs in this subset is expected to grow as IPDA data is enriched. More music data is in the pipeline, including 2 million records from CISAC and music publishers’ data, among other sources under negotiation. 355,912 links have been established between those sources and the other ISNI and VIAF sources.

As a result of ISNI’s broad scope, some surprising links have revealed multi-talented individuals such as Marc Knopfler on the databases of the IPDA and MusicBrainz but also on the library database VIAF with 8 sources, on Wikipedia and the ALCS database (U.K. rights management society for authors).

ISNI and links from libraries to Researchers

The ISNI database is rich in data concerning researchers. Among the assigned ISNIs are 720,635 identities from 9 research based sources: American Musicological Society, British Library Theses, JISC Names (UK), Modern Languages Association, OCLC Theses, ODIN, Proquest Theses, Scholar Universe and Zetoc. Assignment is made when 2 independent sources have data in agreement, or where a name is unique.

In August 2013 some 1,369,351 links have been established among the 9 research based sources and between those sources and the other ISNI and VIAF sources.

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ISNI and ORCID are complementary systems; two different approaches to establishing unique identification of those involved in research. ISNI and ORCID share two goals, to assign and share identifiers such that as far as possible there is only one shared identifier on the two databases and to share publically available metadata. To this end, ISNI has allocated a range of identifiers for the exclusive use of ORCID and interoperation is in the course of development whereby the ISNI database will be consulted during ORCID registration. Unlike ISNI, whose main focus is on ingesting and consolidating data from existing databases and establishing then diffusing reliable identifiers and links, ORCID is focussed on self registration so that researchers can submit their identifiers with their papers for publication.

The scope of ISNI is much broader than ORCID, collecting information on all areas of creative activity. Some surprising links have revealed multi-talented individuals such as Hassan Abdulrazzak involved in stem cell research and a playwright in his spare time. He occurs in the VIAF and Books in Print databases and also in the databases British Library Theses and ALCS (U.K. rights management society for authors).

ISNI also includes organisations primarily focussed on those involved with the information supply chain and establishes links among persons and organisations.

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The ISNI Database

In November 2011, the International ISNI Agency (ISNI-IA) launched its database . As of August 2013, the database includes 6.87 million identities with assigned ISNI status together with rich metadata comprising names, name variants, script and transliteration variants and pseudonyms along with associated works, institutions, affiliations and other distinguishing data. It includes creators in all roles and supporting roles such as authors, artists, composers, performers, translators, illustrators, researchers, producers, publishers, editors and aggregators.

The ISNI-IA is encouraging widespread diffusion and adoption of ISNIs. To this end, the core metadata is freely available for viewing via the web site . Access is also available via a search API ; the SRU explain record at the base address outlines the capabilities. Guidelines for using the search API are also available and downloadable. A persistent URI (example ) leads to a content negotiation page for all assigned records and other Linked Data features are being introduced to the system.

Two immediate focus areas for ISNI are musicians and researchers. Strategic external data sources in these focus areas are being identified for loading to ISNI.

Thus ISNI is bringing trade organisations, libraries, rights management, professional and research organisations into closer cooperation both to share and improve data and to share man power and expertise in improving its quality and linking. By sharing identifiers and promoting their diffusion, links among disparate databases are more widespread and more powerful and become the backbone of initiatives such as digitisation projects needing participation of both libraries and rights management societies. This also means raising the value of authority files to powerful linking mechanisms beyond the library world, and making the library resources widely interconnected through Semantic Web and Linked Data oriented projects.

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Invitation to participate Libraries are invited to participate in ISNI. All libraries may participate in ISNI via the freely available web interface. The web enquiry and SRU interfaces provide a view on the assigned portion of the database via 4 indexes (name, name keyword, ISNI and deprecated ISNI). Via the web interface, comments, corrections and enrichments / clarifications can be recorded against an entry. Those libraries that contribute data to VIAF will receive ISNIs via VIAF for the records that are assigned. Currently this is about -40% of the VIAF records in ISNI.

ISNI membership provides access to more data and gives the power to ensure ISNI assignment. National Libraries in particular are invited to become members of ISNI and the centres of expertise concerning national persons and organisations and to support specific projects that seek to take management of identities beyond the scope of traditional authority files. These might include identification of researchers in journals, citation datasets, or identification of authors across multiple domains in collaborative projects with other cultural institutions. ISNI members have powerful search capabilities to the full ISNI database (currently 16 million records) via 20 indexes (16 more than the public interface) and with a complete record view (excepting private data). The additional indexes include title keyword, other identifiers, publisher keyword, note keyword, language of identity, decade of publication, dates of identity, possible matches, and more. Searches can combine indexes and can include limiters by ISNI status, by creation classes and roles and by identity type (person or organisation). For example it is possible to search for names in combination with sources, classification, keyword or publisher.

ISNI members are also invited to submit an existing file for uploading to ISNI. For libraries that are also members of VIAF, this could be a file of national identities. For example, from the Netherlands National Authority file (NTA), a file of researchers has been submitted to ISNI as a separate source with enriched data not submitted to VIAF.

As a member, an organisation may also participate in the improvement of the data by enriching and disambiguating existing ISNI records including provisional records not visible to the public. To ensure assignment for all identities in its area of relevance, an organisation should become a registration agency or apply via an existing agency. For details on registration agencies, consult the ISNI web site www.isni.org .

The ISNI interface and notifications system can be used to make corrections to ISNI clusters and send notifications to others to correct their data. Thus corrections to ISNI clusters can flow on to VIAF clusters.

Benefits of Membership:

Participate in the creation of high quality cross domain links

o Importance in digitisation projects

o Full coverage of national identifiers

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o Bridge identifier, e.g. between VIAF and ORCID

o Quality infrastructure including end user input and feedback

o Ability to enrich records and correct records to ensure maximum assignment

Access to whole database & all data except confidential

o Access via additional indexes

o Complete non confidential data in machine to machine API (SRU)

o Statistics and quality reports

Right to one batch load: Ongoing – using the services of an existing RAG (no obligation to assume RAG duties)

Forge links among rights management societies, libraries, professional societies, trade, free encyclopaedias

Elect one Board member to represent members

Benefits of a Registration Agency (RAG)

In addition to the membership benefits

RAGs do ongoing assignment and may assign on behalf of others

Online ISNI requests using web interface and a machine to machine API (Atom Pub)

RAGs may do multiple batch load files (for themselves and on behalf of others)

One Board member is appointed to represent RAGs

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Indicative Pricing

Membership Registration Agency

Initial Fee n/a €2500 or

€7500 (annual revenue > 10 million)

Annual Fee €800 €1000 or

€2000 (annual revenue > 10 million)

Batch load

<50,000 records

€5000

one*

€5000

unlimited

Batch load

<150,000 records

€7000

one*

€7000

unlimited

Batch load

up to 3 million records

€10000

one*

€10000

unlimited

Online assignment via RAG between €0.10 and €0.50

* Members may do one batch load and are charged according to the size of the file.

All data contributors receive a bulk load report indicating records assigned and those flagged as possible matches needing review. On a monthly basis, notifications are sent, indicating subsequent assignments (as a result of subsequent loading or quality control) and possible data errors.

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Appendix A. Current ISNI Sources August 2013

Name Type RemarksAccess Copyright Rights Management Canada, mostly authorsAmerican Musicological Society Professional Society US, mostly composersAuthors’ Guild Professional Society US, authorsAuthors’ Licensing and Collecting Society Rights Management UK, mostly authorsBoekenbank Rights Management Belgium, authors and

publishersBooks in Print Trade US, mostly authorsBritish Library Sound Archive Cultural Performers and composersBritish Library Theses Education ResearchersCengage Trade & Education US, InternationalCentrum Dienstverlening Auteurs en aanverwante Rechten

Rights Management Netherlands, mostly authors

Centro Español de Derechos Reprográficos

Rights Management Spain, mostly authors

Irish Copyright Licensing Agency Rights Management Ireland, mostly authorsInternational Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC)

Rights Management 225 societies, mostly composers

International Performers Database Association

Rights Management 37 societies, performers

JISC names Research UK researchersModern Languages Association Professional Society US, mostly authors

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Name Type RemarksMusicBrainz Encyclopaedia InternationalWorldCat Theses, OCLC Libraries InternationalOrcid and DataCite Interoperability Network (ODIN)

Research International

Prolitteris Rights Management Switzerland, mostly authorsProquest Theses Education International, mostly

researchersRinggold Trade International, institutionsScholars’ Universe Trade International, mostly

researchersVG WORT Rights Management GermanyVirtual International Authority File Cultural 32 national, regional and

major research librariesZETOC Research

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Appendix B. Current VIAF Sources August 2013

Name RemarksNational Library of AustraliaBritish Library Part of NACOLibrary and Archives of CanadaBiblioteca de CatalunyaNational Library of the Czech RepublicDanish Bibliographic Center in testBibliotheca Alexandrina (Egypt)Flemish Public LibrariesBibliothèque nationale de FranceSUDOC, France (University network)Deutsche NationalbibliothekGetty Research Institute ArtistsNational Széchényi Library (Hungary)National Library of IsraelIstituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico (Italy)National Diet Library (Japan)National Library of LatviaBiblioteca Nacional de México Part of NACODe Nederlandse Thesaurus van Auteursnamen in testNational Library of New Zealand Part of NACONational Library of NorwayNational Library of PolandNUKAT Center (Poland) (University network)

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Name RemarksBiblioteca Nacional de PortugalRussian State Library In testNational Library of Scotland Part of NACONational Library Board SingaporeNational Library of South Africa Part of NACOBiblioteca Nacional de EspañaNational Library of SwedenSwiss National LibraryRERO (Switzerland)Library of Congress / NACO (US)National Agricultural Library (US) Part of NACONational Library of Medicine (US) Part of NACOVatican LibraryNational Library of Wales Part of NACOWikipedia In test

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